Title

Backscattered polarization patterns, optical vortices, and the angular momentum of light

Authors

Authors

C. Schwartz;A. Dogariu

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Opt. Lett.

Keywords

LIDAR MULTIPLE-SCATTERING; MEDIA; PHOTON; ANISOTROPY; CLOUDS; PHASE; BEAMS; Optics

Abstract

We demonstrate that the polarization patterns observed in backscattering of linearly polarized light are a manifestation of the conservation of angular momentum of light. We will show that this phenomenon can be described in terms of phase vortices that are acquired by the right and left circularly polarized components. The helicity and orbital angular momentum of these components satisfy the requirement for conservation of angular momentum. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Journal Title

Optics Letters

Volume

31

Issue/Number

8

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Document Type

Article

DOI Link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/ol.31.001121

Language

English

First Page

1121

Last Page

1123

WOS Identifier

WOS:000236622000032

ISSN

0146-9592

Recommended Citation

"Backscattered polarization patterns, optical vortices, and the angular momentum of light" (2006). Faculty Bibliography 2000s. 6561.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib2000/6561